Westmoreland sells 135 tax delinquent properties at auction

Westmoreland County added more than $1.62 million to its coffers Monday from the sale of tax delinquent properties.

The annual sale netted about $120,000 more than what buyers paid last year, when 125 properties sold for about $1.5 million; and fell just short of the total earned during the 2020 auction, when 135 properties sold for $1.7 million.

Denyel O’Brien, director of the county’s tax office, said 135 properties were sold on Monday. More than 400 properties in arrears since 2020 were on the auction block.

About 2,000 properties were originally listed as tax delinquent this summer, but that list was whittled down over the last several months as owners paid their bills or obtained court orders to remove properties from the auction. Taxes were paid on about two dozen properties Monday morning.

“There were some people waiting here early this morning to pay their taxes before the sale,” O’Brien said.

O’Brien said 105 registered bidders participated in the auction, which included 72 properties in Rostraver, 40 in Hempfield, 26 in Jeannette and 22 in New Kensington.

O’Brien said 276 properties went unsold at Monday’s auction and will be eligible to be purchased at individual auctions conducted by the tax office later this year. Those sales will have minimum bids to reflect the delinquent tax bills.

This was not the first purge of properties by the county this year. In August, the county sold 27 properties for $199,600 at a judicial sale, including a former brewery building in west Jeannette that officials have long described as blighted and targeted for removal.

Westmoreland County’s Land Bank purchased the former brewery and 11 other tax delinquent properties in the August sale, during which the county sold 27 properties and earned more than $199,600.

Two more judicial sales are scheduled for 2022, one each in November and December. More information can be found at www.co.westmoreland.pa.us/166/Tax-Sale-Information.